Another oil expert confirms that Guyana cannot afford an oil refinery

Georgetown; – More than six months after Michael Boyer, a former oil research analyst at British Petroleum (Bp) had said that Guyana cannot afford an oil refinery; Pedro Hass, a government-hired consultant from Hartree Partners LP of Mexico, is now confirming the exact same thing.

Back in December 2016, the Guyana Guardian had interviewed Boyer, an oil industry expert who now works as a consultant with the Saudi Government by providing crucial investment and infrastructural advises to the Kingdom.

At the time, he had explain that at minimum it would cost Guyana between US$4.4 billion to US$5 billion to build an average size refinery; – the same figure that the government-hired consultant has now quoted.

Boyer had also listed a number of logistical and economic reasons why an oil refinery would not be feasible to construct here; – the exact same things that were highlighted by the government consultant during a presentation at Marian Academy earlier this week.

Indirectly offering his professional advice for free to the government back then, Boyer had stressed that attempting to build an oil refinery of any kind would lead to a bankrupt country since the operational cost itself would mean that the country would be losing more than US$0.5 billion per year in bail-out money, which can skyrocket to around a billion US dollars or more annually, depending on the price of oil on the world market.

He was adamant that it was money a country like Guyana cannot afford to lose.

Now stationed in Dubai in the Middle East, Boyer also has a small satellite entity at Sharon’s Building in Guyana which is currently providing private consultancy services and contractual training in Dubai to a handful of local businessmen seeking to generate revenue from oil and gas.

And while he had initially offered to provide free advice to the State, his offer was never accepted.

Nonetheless, he has since identified several other areas where (separately from the State) the local private sector and the population can still generate an average of between US$2.7 billion to US$5 billion annually from oil without having to rely on the building of a refinery.

“This would however require some crucial legislative and economic adjustments, among other things in order to make this possible’, he said.

In referring directly to the recent findings by Pedro Hass on the question of a refinery, Boyer says that he is fully in agreement with Mr. Haas.

He added that any oil and gas consultant who really knows their work would come up with the same results as Hass, since there are certain inescapable truths that experts has to take into account during such a feasibility study.

Boyer concluded that, regardless of whichever expert the government calls in for an opinion, they will end up back with the same results regarding a refinery, particularly if that individual has a well-trained understanding of the industry.

More than a year ago, Exxon Mobil had confirmed the discovery of oil in economically viable proportions offshore Guyana.

Ever since, the Guyana government and the private sector has been desperately trying to identify ways in which the country can benefit more broadly from the discovery.

However, Guyana does not readily have an industry qualified or industry recognized oil and gas expert at its disposal to properly advise the government.

Hence, the required oil and gas charter or economic blue print to create direct monetary opportunities for the population and the private sector from oil, does not exist; – A document that Boyer suggested should have long been available to the citizenry.